sws4420
04-18-2005, 10:40 AM
N.J. couple Bill and Ellen Tesauro ride out storm in safe reception area with hundreds of others.
Bill Tesauro and his wife, Ellen, of Wayne, N.J. - on their first vacation without their children - went to the casino when the rough waves started slamming the ship.
"We figured it would take our minds off this [and] that's when the captain announced that drinks are free all night," said Bill Tesauro, 56. "But then there was another horrendous slap on the water.
"At first we thought we'd ride it out but then we got panicky," said Bill Tesauro, who said he looked at the 40-foot sea swells and decided to return to their 10th-floor suite.
"A desk went flying across the room," said Ellen Tesauro, 47. "And a glass table toppled down, with glasses and food on it.
"It was wild," she said. "The ship was going side to side. What you saw, you can't even explain."
Slept away
Anne Decandia took her 17-year-old daughter, Danielle, on the cruise to celebrate the teen's graduation from Monroe Township (N.J.) High School. The two took different views of the storm.
"I was awake all night long, listening to the crashing," said Decandia, 47. "It was the absolutely scariest thing imaginable. You were actually lifted off your bed."
Danielle, however, slept through the storm and said, "It was fun." Mom said that was just "youth speaking."
'The sea turned on us'
A longtime cruise lover, Kathleen Riccardi of Brooklyn, was excited to travel with her husband and their 1-year-old daughter on the girl's first sea voyage - until the storm hit.
"It had been going so well and then the sea just turned on us," said Riccardi, 31, who works in a medical office. "The sky was as dark as night, and the 40-foot swells were unbelievably scary."
"When things started breaking, we saw people walking in the halls, covered in blood," she said.
With the storm intensifying as the night fell, Riccardi said she held her daughter close and thought of loved ones.
"I wasn't sure I was coming home," she said. "I feel lucky to be alive."
Wakened by water
Stacy Maryland of Hamilton, N.J., was on a family vacation with her husband and children, Marilena, 4, and Kyle, 13, when she got a wet wakeup call.
"I thought I heard water sloshing around, and then I woke up, and saw it and it was surreal," said Maryland, 33, who awoke with a foot of water in her cabin, her family's shoes and magazines floating around.
"I just didn't want to see the water," she said, but she relented and walked midship to the Dazzle Lounge, where her family sat and stared out the giant windows.
"I was a nervous wreck, I thought that was it," she said, recalling how the crew wouldn't give them life jackets. "The boat felt like it was going to tip over."
Bill Tesauro and his wife, Ellen, of Wayne, N.J. - on their first vacation without their children - went to the casino when the rough waves started slamming the ship.
"We figured it would take our minds off this [and] that's when the captain announced that drinks are free all night," said Bill Tesauro, 56. "But then there was another horrendous slap on the water.
"At first we thought we'd ride it out but then we got panicky," said Bill Tesauro, who said he looked at the 40-foot sea swells and decided to return to their 10th-floor suite.
"A desk went flying across the room," said Ellen Tesauro, 47. "And a glass table toppled down, with glasses and food on it.
"It was wild," she said. "The ship was going side to side. What you saw, you can't even explain."
Slept away
Anne Decandia took her 17-year-old daughter, Danielle, on the cruise to celebrate the teen's graduation from Monroe Township (N.J.) High School. The two took different views of the storm.
"I was awake all night long, listening to the crashing," said Decandia, 47. "It was the absolutely scariest thing imaginable. You were actually lifted off your bed."
Danielle, however, slept through the storm and said, "It was fun." Mom said that was just "youth speaking."
'The sea turned on us'
A longtime cruise lover, Kathleen Riccardi of Brooklyn, was excited to travel with her husband and their 1-year-old daughter on the girl's first sea voyage - until the storm hit.
"It had been going so well and then the sea just turned on us," said Riccardi, 31, who works in a medical office. "The sky was as dark as night, and the 40-foot swells were unbelievably scary."
"When things started breaking, we saw people walking in the halls, covered in blood," she said.
With the storm intensifying as the night fell, Riccardi said she held her daughter close and thought of loved ones.
"I wasn't sure I was coming home," she said. "I feel lucky to be alive."
Wakened by water
Stacy Maryland of Hamilton, N.J., was on a family vacation with her husband and children, Marilena, 4, and Kyle, 13, when she got a wet wakeup call.
"I thought I heard water sloshing around, and then I woke up, and saw it and it was surreal," said Maryland, 33, who awoke with a foot of water in her cabin, her family's shoes and magazines floating around.
"I just didn't want to see the water," she said, but she relented and walked midship to the Dazzle Lounge, where her family sat and stared out the giant windows.
"I was a nervous wreck, I thought that was it," she said, recalling how the crew wouldn't give them life jackets. "The boat felt like it was going to tip over."